Book Review - Royally Roma

After years of disappointment and heartbreak at the hands of men who she thought she could trust, Julia Costa believes she has learned her lesson. After her father ended up as Wall Street’s biggest embezzler, dragging her name through the mud and her into the limelight, Julia fled to Rome to study Archeology.

In the city of romance, Julia falls hard for a man and becomes far too trusting. When she doesn’t see it coming, he packs up and leaves with every cent she owns. Now, Julia is left to fend for herself with a job as a tour guide in Rome until she can save up the money to complete her thesis in order to earn her Master's degree. Julia, much too involved in getting to where she needs to be going, does not pay attention to tabloids and celebrity gossip, but instead gets lost in the sights and sounds of Rome. Until one day, when a tour goes wrong - or oh, so right. If Julia had paid attention to the news and gossip of Rome, she may have realized that one of the tourists, “Mano Romano,” was not, in fact, a tourist at all, but the crown prince of Lazaretto. Naive as Julia is, she fully believes “Mano” to be the person she is giving a full day’s tour to. Not only is this a costly booking, but one that helps her live and save for her degree. Mano just so happens to be Niccolo La Torre, who is not a client at all, but a Prince tired of living up to his royal day to day duties. How much would he pay for a day of no responsibilities, especially with someone as unnerving as Julia? Everything. Except he has no money and no way to pay Julia for the tour. Is that what Julia gets for being too

In a rush of emotion, fear and, most of all, anger at losing her job, Julia kidnaps her client until he is able to pay for his tour. Being a Prince, he is not accustomed to carrying money, he has people who do that for him. He’s also used to people giving in to his every whim, however, because Julia does not know who he is, she gives him no special treatment. This is both unusual for Nico, but extremely attractive. With the promise of giving her money the next day, she takes him home with her. After speaking with his secretary the next day, it is discovered that the money could not be secured. Not only because it is such a large sum, but because it happens to be a Sunday. Ironically, even being a Prince doesn’t make for such accommodations to be made. Julia, determined to get her money, insists Nico stay with her, but in a twist of events, he asks her to give him another tour, one in which he will pay even more money - just to be able to have one more day of freedom. With alarm bells ringing, ignoring her past luck, she relents, as there is something about this mysterious man that is utterly attractive and different about him. She is not the only one feeling this way. Will she ever get her money, learn who Nico really is, and maybe even find love despite her past hardships?

This book was not only addicting and hard to put down, but it also didn’t come off as a normal “cheesy” romance like so many others do. The descriptions of Rome and the sights made me crave travel and the twists and turns had me guessing until the very end. As the first book in this series, I can hardly wait to begin the next. I can only hope that Wilson's next book in the series is as well-written, enchanting, and adventurous.

Quill says: Royally Roma makes it easy to feel as though you’ve travelled and fallen in love without ever leaving the couch.